It has been a busy
start to 2015 with a variety of races on a variety of bikes. The World Cup
season has only just started which is a lot later than usual therefore it has
been a bit of wait and I have been preparing well for it. I started the year
with a bit of Cross racing which went well and I managed to defend my U23 Cross
title in which is my final year in this category so next year I will be a full
on Elite. Following this I headed to Australia with the GB team and completed a
lot of training in some great weather and raced the Herald Sun Tour, which went
well and was a great experience. It was great fun to be a part of this trip.
Now
I find myself in March and the mtb season is beginning to kick off but with the
World cups not until May I tried to keep it steady and not to busy so I raced
the opening few British rounds which all went well, although Sherwood pines was
defiantly an experience this year and I spend a few days clearing mud out my
eyes! A few more trips pieced together and a spell on the road and I started to
feel in good shape, making sure I kept myself as healthy as possible.
Following this I
headed to Europe for a small race trip at the end of April with my Dutch teammate
Hans Becking, we raced in Belgium on the Friday night in a Cat1 National round.
It was a very wet and muddy day so we got the mud tyres on and cracked on round
the technical track. My race didn’t go plan as I messed up the start, which
made my day out hard, but I started to move through later on in the race and
felt all right, which was ok. Straight after this we road tripped to Germany
and got in late at night for a race on Sunday. The race we had planned was a HC
event in Heubach and since it was a high category event there was a lot of big
names on the start list. I had decided to race Elite men, which I was excited
about. We course practiced on the Saturday and I lined up on the 3rd
row for a wet and muddy race on the Sunday. I started well and moved up to the
front group which was cool and I ended up in a race with Julian Absalon who is
the current world Champion and in the end I finished just behind him in 5th
place and just ahead of last years world champion Nino Shurter, which I thought
was pretty smart!
The first World
Cup was being held in Nove Mesto Na Morave in the Czech republic, I was excited
to race and we headed to the venue on Wednesday. The course had a couple of
changes but nothing major as to previous years so I knew what to expect and it
is a rooty natural track with some technical rock features. There were 150 boys
on the start line and I had the number 1 board as highest ranked on the world rank,
which I was really excited about. I prepared well and lined up bright and early
on the Sunday morning for the race. It was a big start loop and I came round it
10 sec up with Sam Gaze for company and small group of 4 just behind. This
turned into a front group of 4 of us for the early part of the race with it
constantly changing positions. On the second last lap the group split and I
drifted of the back and with two more coming past I found myself in 6th
place but still able to see 3rd place, it stayed this close for the
final lap and I ended up finishing in 7th place which wasn’t quite
what I was looking for but I was happy to start my world cup season.
After this we
drove to Albstadt, Germany for round 2, which would be the following weekend.
The German track is quite different to Czech and consists of a more man made
trail with some features and is a shorter lap with two main climbs. We stayed
in the area for the week and got plenty of practice on the track and I was
ready to go. I lined up 7th on the grid for this round, which
represents my position in the series following the first round so still on the
front row. Its always nervous just before the starts everyone lines up but I
got a good start towards the front then after the first lap I had got a bit of
a gap of around 15sec by myself. Then similar to the previous week a group
caught me and we became 4 boys. We stayed like this in the middle part of the
race then some small gaps started to open and I was sitting 4th
place but we were all within 30sec so it was all to play for in the final part.
I went flat out on the final lap to try and close the gap and at least get on
the podium of which was just 5sec ahead of me but in the end I couldn’t get to
third and I finished 4th place at 30sec on the winner and 5sec of
the third step. It was a hard race and I was pleased with my effort and gave it
all I had to get the best result but I’m still on the hunt for a top result so
I will be back to the drawing board slightly and start preparing for the next
round which is in about 4 weeks time in Switzerland.
Cheers Grant.
Photos thanks to Irmo Keizer.
